


City of the Living

by TaleasOldasTimeandSpace



Series: Fairy Tales and Hokum [7]
Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Crack, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, So much angst, The Mummy AU, Wyjess, YOU KNEW THIS WAS COMING, as promised, let me know if I need to tag anything else, mentions of murder slavery and suicidal thoughts, plays fast and loose with so much history, tragic backstory, we interrupt our regularly scheduled Garcy for Wyjess backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 15:44:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15975428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaleasOldasTimeandSpace/pseuds/TaleasOldasTimeandSpace
Summary: More than three thousand years ago, a soldier and a bodyguard fell in love





	City of the Living

He edged around the pillar, intent on his target.  His footsteps were silent. This time he would triumph.  This time—

The sharp tip of a sword forced his chin up, and his breathing stilled.  ‘You’re going to have to try a lot harder than that to win against me, General.’

He grinned.  There was only one person who knew he spoke Hebrew, and that was the one who taught him.  ‘Maybe,’ he replied in the same language.  ‘But I haven’t lost yet.’  He spun, catching the sword and twisting it to rest against his opponent's throat.

She leaned against the pillar and smirked up at him.  ‘Not bad.  Perhaps there’s hope for the Pharaoh's armies, after all.’

‘But not for the Pharaoh, since I just killed his bodyguard.’

She shrugged, not at all concerned with the blade at her throat.  ‘I’m sure he’ll understand.  It was a glorious death at the hands of a worthy foe.’

‘Since I’m the victor in this scenario, I think a prize might be in order, don’t you?’  He leaned closer, one hand braced against the pillar, the sword forgotten between them.

‘Possibly…’  She tilted her head back, brushing his nose with hers as she slung her arms over his shoulders.  ‘What did you have in mind?’

In answer, he lowered his head and captured her lips with his own.  She smiled against his mouth, and he felt her fingers sink into his hair.  He dropped the sword, reaching up to tug off her wig and buried both hands in her long, honey-gold hair.

‘Welcome back, Wy’att,’ she whispered against his lips.

He pulled away to nuzzle the crook of her neck.  ‘I missed you, Jeska.’

‘And I, you.  How long can you stay?’

‘As long as my lord Pharaoh wills.’

She slapped the back of his head, making him laugh.  ‘That's not funny.  You've been gone for  _ months.’ _

‘And I’ve dreamed of you every night.’  He dropped a kiss on her hair.  ‘But unless he gets a sudden urge to fight the Hittites again, I should be home for at least a month.’

Her smile went a little crooked.   ‘I wish you didn't have to be away so long.’

‘So do I.’  Glancing around, he leaned close to her ear.  ‘Soon,’ he whispered.

It took a minute for his words to sink in.   _ ‘Really?’ _ she gasped, her own eyes darting around, confirming that yes, they were alone and no, no one had overheard his less-than-incriminating words or her extremely incriminating reaction.

He nodded.  ‘Be ready.’

Her eyes narrowed.  ‘Well, in that case—’

It was his only warning before she hooked her foot around his leg and flipped him onto his back.  She followed him down, a knife appearing in her hand an instant before she pressed it to his throat.

‘Never assume your enemy is defeated until you know they’re dead,’ she remarked conversationally as he lay there, wheezing.  ‘You taught me that.’  Placing a delicate kiss on the tip of his nose she stood, sliding the knife back onto her belt and sauntering away.  ‘I’ll be waiting for your signal, General.’ 

‘I love you, Jess,’ he called after her.

She favoured him with a grin before disappearing behind one of the pillars.

Not for the first time, he wondered why a woman like that was wasting her time on a man like him.  

* * *

 

A week of secret glances and stolen kisses passed before Wy’att caught Jeska’s arm as she passed in the palace corridor.  ‘The docks,’ he whispered. ‘Sunset.’

She glanced up and down the corridor before pressing a quick kiss to his lips.  ‘Sunset.  I’ll be there.’

How she managed to look so calm for the rest of the day he had no idea.  The only reason he wasn’t shaking with nervous energy as he watched the sun sink behind the pyramids was because he was pacing back and forth along the docks.

It had been too long.  The sun was almost gone, and she wasn’t here.  He tried to tell himself she was just running late, that she’d been cornered by someone and had to take longer to get away, but as the last streaks of pink and orange faded into the deep purple of the night sky, he knew something was wrong.  He started retracing his path through the city.

By the time he reached the palace he was running.

The whole complex was in uproar.  He caught the arm of a guard rushing across the courtyard.  ‘What’s going on?’ he demanded.

The guard wrenched his arm out of Wy’att’s grasp.  ‘How can you not know?’

‘I’ve been busy.’  Wy’att blocked him when he tried to leave.  ‘Humor me.’

‘The Pharaoh is dead!’  The guard shoved past him.  ‘That treacherous Hebrew  _ killed _ him!’

_ Treacherous Hebrew…? _  ‘Jeska?’ he whispered, almost uncomprehending.  But it made terrible, perfect sense.  Seti had made no secret of his desire for her, though she was barely older than his daughter.  Jeska had been plucked from the Hebrew land of Goshen as a child and trained to be handmaid and bodyguard to the princess.  But as she grew in skill and beauty he cared less for the safety of his daughter and more for his own lusts.  He had made her his personal bodyguard less than a year ago, and Jeska and Wy’att both knew he meant to make her his mistress before much longer.  It was more than half the reason they'd planned to run.  After all, what were the wants of a slave and soldier compared to those of the divine Pharaoh?

And if he had caught her trying to escape…

‘Did she...did they catch her?’ he called after the guard, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.  But  _ maybe _ .  Maybe she got away, maybe she was hiding, maybe she was still all right and waiting—

‘Yes, at least the Medjai did  _ something _ right, though far too late.  They cut her down as she fled the palace.  She’ll be buried in a pauper’s grave, and it’s more than she deserves.’

It was only a lifetime of training that kept him from collapsing in a heap in the middle of the courtyard.  That same training enabled him to stagger back to his quarters, where he dropped on his cot and stared blankly at the wall.  Jess,  _ dead? _  She couldn't be.  She was supposed to meet him at the docks.  They would sail the Nile north until they reached the Delta.  Maybe they would try to find Wy'att's people, maybe they would just…see the world.  But they couldn't do _ any _ of that if Jeska was  _ dead. _

He broke then.

* * *

 

Thebes was in chaos in the wake of the Pharaoh's death.  His advisors scrambled to find a successor, while the nobles vied for the position.  The army was deployed to quell riots, ostensibly to keep the peace but mainly with the hope it would keep the generals too busy to seize power themselves.

Wy'att was numb.

He would happily have let one of the rioting mobs kill him, except how could he be happy about anything?  Jeska was _ dead. _  Besides, he was too experienced a soldier to just _ let _ himself be killed.  So he continued to fight, continued to _ do his duty, _ and every day took just one more unnecessary risk.  And every day he died a little more inside.

His only consolation was the faint chance they might meet again in the afterlife, but even that seemed like too much to hope.  Seti had expected to spend his afterlife comfortably surrounded by all the treasure he could cram into a pyramid, but Wy’att took vindictive pleasure in believing the Pharaoh to be grossly mistaken.  Jeska never really spoke about Hebrew beliefs, and it always seemed there were so many other things to talk about (or do, like spar and kiss) than what may or may not happen after you die.  Wy’att didn’t really have any beliefs of his own—he’d been captured in a raid by a rival clan as a child and sold further and further south until he reached Egypt, and at this point he was more familiar with Egyptian beliefs than any that might be his heritage.  He wasn’t even entirely sure where he was from, originally.  He’d never cared.  Jeska was all the home he’d ever needed.

Jeska was dead.

In the middle of his desolate contemplation of the afterlife, he remembered the book.  Briefly, before he began his rise through the ranks of Pharaoh’s army, he’d been posted as a guard in the city of Hamunaptra.  It had been boring, for the most part—hours of doing nothing but watch the empty desert, broken only by the self-important priests as they came and went on their mysterious business.

There was a rumour that had circulated among the guards that Hamunaptra contained a book that could bring the dead back to life.  He’d even seen it once, cradled in the arms of the high priest Imhotep like a newborn child.  He hadn’t believed the stories at the time—a book that could give the dead life?  What next, time travel? But if there was even the slightest chance that it could work…

He didn’t even need to think about it.  If the book could bring Jeska back, he had no choice.   He knew he risked death—even eternal damnation—if he was caught, but what of it?  Every day since she died was a living hell, so he was already used to it.

He’d never been much of a believer, but he would believe anything, risk anything, to save her.  

Nothing else mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> I am deeply aware that this isn't historically accurate at all, but I tried. I seriously doubt a Hebrew woman would become bodyguard to the Pharaoh (the life of Moses notwithstanding), but it works rather nicely for my purposes. Besides, Imhotep was an architect in real life.
> 
> We will return to our regularly scheduled Garcy whenever I get around to writing it. In the meantime, come say hi on [tumblr!](https://taleasoldastime-andspace.tumblr.com/)


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